Page 8 of Give Me All Of You

He got up and picked up the bowl and got a spoon out of the drawer before heading out the kitchen and into Lu’s room. My family has been a big help during all of this. Even my pops would come over and lend a hand every now and then.

An hour later, I had washed Peace up for the day and got her dressed by the time Haze was done with Lucretia. We met up in the living when I walked back down the stairs. I placed Peace on her feet and let her do her thing. My brother joined me, and we chopped it up.

“Aye, Knas called me yesterday and said to meet him at eight at Murda’s club,” he informed.

“When?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Bet. I’ll have Peace stay with Ma. I don’t know what Jace had, and I don’t really want her around them like that until he fully recovers.” He nodded in agreement. While Peace tore my damn living room up, I caught him up on what Lucretia said to me last night and all he could do was look at me with sympathy in his eyes. I didn’t need sympathy. I needed this pain in my chest to go away and for my daughter to keep her mother, but just like I knew gas prices would never go down, I wouldn’t have this either.

Chapter Four

JaRue

I was so glad to finally be off for the weekend. I was going to sit in the house with my baby and watch movies and eat snacks all weekend. Ever since Keith popped up at my house and saw all the groceries and supplies that I brought for Infiniti, he’s been calling and harassing me about a man being around his daughter, and what he’ll do to me. He does all of that, but when I bring up him seeing his daughter or picking her up, he never has the time. I was over him and his bullshit, but he was Infiniti’s father, and I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he wouldn’t leave well enough alone. As I was gathering my belongings, one of Knasim’s twin cousins walked in. By his attire, I knew it was Kyan.

“Wassup, Rue? Knas still in the back?” He stopped by my desk and propped up on his arm. The men in this family knew they were fine. I mean drop dead 90s type of fine, but I didn’t do married men. Yes, my baby daddy was married, but the bastard lied to me, so it doesn’t count, nor does his irrelevant ass.

“Yes. He’s still in the back with his brother,” I responded. With a nod, he smiled and headed to the back where Knasim’s office was and left me up front to handle my business.

Best Fren (fingers crossed emoji): Drinks tonight?

I read the message that came from Journei and shook my head with a smile. Every weekend she tried to get me to go somewhere and every weekend I declined.

Me: I already have plans.

I lied.

Best Fren (fingers crossed emoji): Lies. Yo’ ass ain’t gon’ be doing shit but sitting up in the house with Finny eating fruit snacks and looking at Bluey until she falls asleep (eye roll emoji).

Me: Don’t act like you know me because that’s exactly what I plan on doing lol. You’re free to join us if you like (smirking emoji).

Best Fren (fingers crossed emoji): No ma’am. You never go out and I’m tired of going on these boring ass dates. Take my God baby to your parents and take that damn bun out of your hair and let’s go have fun. You can put your Mumu on and go back to being an old maid tomorrow.

Her referring to my Mumu caused me to cackle louder than I intended. I was glad that no one was in here with me or they would’ve thought I was crazy as hell.

Me: Okay…ONE drink and I’m leaving.

Best Fren (fingers crossed emoji): That’s good enough for me (kissing emoji).

Shaking my head at the thought of Journei dragging me outside tonight. I will be the first to admit that all I do is work and go home with my baby. Keith never gave me any free time, and I didn’t want to burden my parents with keeping my child while I went out. Even though I rarely did, I felt guilty. My parents never made me feel bad about leaving my daughter withthem. They actually encouraged me to go out and have fun. It was all me.

After I finished up some orders that needed to be placed for a funeral that we had next week, I was done with my work week. Since I agreed to go out tonight with Journei, I was going to go pick up Infiniti from daycare and head straight home. Looking down at my gas hand, I realized I needed to stop and fill up. I would do that now before I even picked up Infiniti. It was always a task trying to get gas with her in the car. I pulled up to the nearest gas station and pulled up to the pump before trekking inside. There were quite a few people in front of me, so I went and grabbed Infiniti a snack and myself a juice before I got in line. When it was my turn, I placed my things on the counter and told the cashier I was putting thirty dollars on pump four. Before I could hand him my money, I heard the sexiest deep voice that I’ve heard prompting me to turn around.

“You can put her tab with mine,” the fine stranger asserted.

I lost all train of thought as I drank him in. At one point in my life, I thought Keith was the finest man that I have ever seen, but now I know that to be a total illusion because the man standing before me was a true work of God. I’m definitely putting a little more in the collection plate for this one. I would say he was a little over six feet tall, with the finest tawny colored skin littered with tattoos from what I could see. There were cute freckles sprinkled over his face, and a pair of glasses were perched on his nose. I couldn’t tell if they were prescription or designer like Knasim’s cousin Kyandri, but either way, he was still sexy as hell. Taking notice of his hair, I saw it was braided back into four braids and it was just as long as mine. My God, this man was fine!

“Uhm, thank you. You don’t have to do that.” I finally stopped gawking at this man and found my voice.

Licking his lips and giving me a once over, he responded. “No pressure, baby. It’s cool.” He slid his card to the clerk and leaned on the counter. The cashier gave me my items, and I thanked the stranger again before heading out the door. I wasn’t at the door good before he swooped around me and held the door open for me to pass through.

“Thank you,” I swooned.

“You want to give me your name, beautiful?”

I kept steady strides toward my little Camry so that I could fill up my tank. I was thankful for the bonus I got from Knasim and Knight a few weeks ago, so now I have some breathing room to do the little things like fill up my tank and not worry about it.

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